The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources is in discussions with two other Ministries and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to put in place measures aimed at mitigating the effects of floods during this year’s rainy season.
Ministries for the Interior and Works and Housing are the other members of the inter-ministerial committee expected to draw up plans in readiness for the perennial floods in Accra and other parts of the country.
Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, who disclosed this in Accra yesterday said the move was to prevent disasters which has characterised the rainy seasons in recent years.
She was addressing the Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing during a meeting to discuss the Ministry’s activities and challenges in its mandate.
The Committee, the Minister said, would collaborate with the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure the needed works and exercise were carried out on time before the rains begin.
“The committee, which will be made up of representatives of the three Ministries and NADMO, would come up with the strategies to be executed on time before the rainy season. They would liaise with the MMDAs of the mostly affected areas to ensure that drains and gutters are desilted and all other prone areas vacated to ensure safety. We want to avoid all forms of disasters and so we call on all Ghanaians to help us in this regard,” Madam Dapaah stated.
The Ministry, she said, would engage the World Bank on up scaling the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) project, which had resulted in the provision of toilet facilities to about 40,000 households within the catchment area, to other regions to make sanitary amenities accessible and support efforts to end open defecation.
On water supply, the Minister noted that the government had secured a number of financial arrangements to undertake water supply projects across the country adding that government was committed to ensuring regular supply of potable water to all households across the country.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing, Nana Amoakoh said that enough sensitisation required to change the behaviour of Ghanaians toward waste management as it could be an avenue for wealth creation.
He was confident that the government was on course in realising President Nana Akufo-Addo’s vision to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa saying that despite the challenges “we are working hard to overcome all the impediments to position Accra and Ghana at large the way President want it to be.”
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
